Ask not what you can do for your country; but what you can do for me.
That in a nutshell was the essence of French President Emmanuel Macron’s prissy, Obama-like speech aimed at President Donald Trump at last Sunday’s Armistice Day observance in Paris.
Because if Trump, a self-described nationalist, is putting America First, that means that there will be cutbacks — or outright elimination — in the financial and military assistance the U.S. has been doling out to France and Europe for more than 50 years.
“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism,” Macron said, taking a shot at the stone-faced Trump. “Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism,” he added in a non-sequitur that sounded nice in French but makes no sense in English.
Macron talked gibberish. The opposite of nationalism is not patriotism but globalism, which Trump opposes. In Trump’s view, and the view of his supporters, globalism means the strengthening of other countries at the expense of the United States. The U.S. lopsided trade imbalance with other countries is a prime example of globalism.
Macron made his remarks at a militarily staged performance standing at the base of the Arc de Triomphe, which was ordered built by Napoleon, the world’s foremost nationalist, to commemorate his military victories in 1805.
The French have hardly had a military victory since. The United States saved the French in World War I and liberated a Nazi-occupied France in World War II. This latter war saw half of France collaborate with the Nazi occupiers.
How did Macron thank the United States? After insulting Trump, Macron seated himself beside Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, the country that invaded France twice in the 20th century and would still be in Paris if it were not for the United States.
France, Germany and other European counties have prospered because of the generosity of the United States, which has provided for their defense through NATO and other military programs since the end of World War II.
This assistance, both militaristic and economic, allowed these counties to provide generous social welfare benefits to their people at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer.
Trump is threatening to turn the spigot off. While Trump has promised to support NATO, he has insisted that the 29-member countries pay their fair share of defense costs.
U.S. troops in Germany and France have protected them from a Soviet or Russian invasion since the end of World War II. The grandchildren of those American soldiers who fought their way from Normandy to Berlin are still there defending them.
Someone is giving Macron some bad advice. Days before the ceremony he said he wanted to create a European Army to protect the continent,
The continent he had in mind was not North America, but the continent of Europe, which he, according to news reports, wanted to defend from a possible invasion by China, Russia “and even the United States.”
Macron would have been better advised to talk about defending Europe from the invasion of immigrants from the Middle East, legal and otherwise, that are destabilizing Germany and France.
Trump is not without fault here. His comments about nationalism tend to cause concern, both at home and abroad, even though he uses the term in the “America First” sense. “You know what I am? I’m a nationalist. OK? I’m a nationalist,” he said at a Texas rally.
While Trump tends to mangle the English language, he has explained that he means that he intends to put the interests of the United States above the interests of other countries.
It is a loaded word, however. When some African Americans hear nationalism, they think of South Africa, apartheid and white nationalism.
It would have been better if Trump used “patriot” and “patriotism” instead of “nationalist” and “nationalism.” While I have heard people called white nationalists, I have never heard anyone called a white patriot.
When European leaders hear nationalism, they are reminded of Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker’s Party — the horrible Nazis.
Which is perhaps why Macron darkly warned that “the old demons are rising again, ready to complete their tasks of chaos and of death.”
Macron may have had Trump in mind, but the only people around his event at the Arc de Triomphe who ever brought “chaos and death” to France were the Germans, and Macron ended up sitting beside Angela Merkel.
The only thing the United States ever brought to France was life and liberty. And Macron stiffed Trump.
France, you have problem.
Email: luke1825@aol.com